Re:Super-hard metal 'four times tougher than titanium'
by dredmorbius on Sunday July 24, 2016 @05:56PM
(#12155092)
The history of plastics discovery is pretty interesting too.
The first were based on coal tar, starting around 1870-1880 IIRC. Then came bakelite, still used in cookware handles -- it has exceptionally good thermal resistance properties.
Discovery accelerated through the 1900s, 1910s, and 1920s, and exploded in the 1930s, with the number of materials about doubling IIRC.
Names started changing too -- from chemical (polypropelene, polyester, polystyrene) to brand (nylon, teflon, orlon).
I've also noted that with both coal and oil, there seems to have been an adoption and technological development cycle in which the first use was to burn the materials, and only later, by some decades, did the chemistry develop for materials based on the substrates. There's probably a lesson here.
The first were based on coal tar, starting around 1870-1880 IIRC. Then came bakelite, still used in cookware handles -- it has exceptionally good thermal resistance properties.
Discovery accelerated through the 1900s, 1910s, and 1920s, and exploded in the 1930s, with the number of materials about doubling IIRC.
Names started changing too -- from chemical (polypropelene, polyester, polystyrene) to brand (nylon, teflon, orlon).
I've also noted that with both coal and oil, there seems to have been an adoption and technological development cycle in which the first use was to burn the materials, and only later, by some decades, did the chemistry develop for materials based on the substrates. There's probably a lesson here.